Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	let_v	lord_n	praise_v	2,458	5	9.7983	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27171	The reformed monastery, or, The love of Jesus a sure and short, pleasant and easie way to heaven : in meditations, directions, and resolutions to love and obey Jesus unto death : in two parts.	Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.	1678 (1678)	Wing B1575; ESTC R35744	117,906	289

be offered to him now that sacred fire must have fewel to entertain it it must be nourished by reading good books and especially by frequent and pious meditations Wherefore I have endeavoured as much as I could to feed those holy flames by representing things as they are and I would have every Christian seriously and often to consider what God is what he hath done what he doth and what he will do for us if we love him sincerely as also what we are whence we come whither we go and how easie it is for us to be eternally happy if we will set our affections upon God who deserves them so infinitely Doubtless inconsideration is the cause why God is not loved It is not possible men could resist the charms of his love if they would open the eys of their mind and of their faith to view them But how few is there that mind attentively their obligations to love God how few that seriously ponder how much it is their duty and their interest to love him heartily who is infinitely lovely in himself and infinitely good to us or rather how fully is the prophesie fulfilled Iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold Mat. 24.12 To how many Christians might our Blessed Saviour now say as once to the Jews I know you that you have not the love of God in you John 5.42 How justly might now S. Paul complain all men seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ's Phil. 2.21 And how justly might our Blessed Lord the great lover of men complain in the words of his Apostle I will gladly spend and be spent for you or rather I have gladly spent and been spent for you though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved 2 Cor. 12.15 This want of Divine Charity is a very sad and general evil amongst us Christians in these worst of times and I have observed that even amongst them that hope for heaven the major part go no farther in their love than only to desire pardon and salvation without seeking to make any returns suitable to those undeserved and incomprehensible mercies Against so much stupidity and ingratitude I have opposed the following Treatise of Divine Love or the Love of JESUS which I hope will help to reinkindle or at least stir up the holy fire in some Christian souls by the argument it self if by no other means Whilest my Reader fixeth his mind on this most excellent and delightful subject his own thoughts will improve my considerations and many better may be suggested to him And if any ways I can occasion his spiritual advantage and the glory of my Blessed Lord I have attained my aim And now have no more to say by way of Preface but that if I have been so unhappy as to write any thing contrary to the Doctrine of the Church I disown and retract it before hand and would blot it out with my blood as for particular persons who may find fault with any thing herein I desire them to pass it by It matters not much if they like not every passage and expression if they do but follow what they judge to be good and approve my design and love Jesus with all their hearts it will be enough for their profit and my satisfaction He that loveth not knows not God for God is Love 1 John 4.9 THE Reformed Monastery Or the Love of JESUS The Introduction IT were as easie to find out the bottomless depth of the inexhaustible fountain of the Divine Bounty as to tell the Streams which run from it Gods mercies are over all his works and all things that are made are a demonstration as much of his goodness as of his being I will not therefore undertake to number what is innumerable or to express what we cannot so much as comprehend but only insist briefly upon some of the most general benefits of God to mankind and in the representing of them endeavour to make us read our duty and to inflame our hearts with love CHAP. I. Of the general Benefits of God to mankind and first of Creation 1. IT is God that hath made us and not we our selves we owe him our very being thine hands have made and fashioned me saith David thine eyes did see my substance being yet imperfect and in thy book were all my members written Psal 119.73 Let us say therefore with the same Prophet I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 134.16 and let us with him fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker You know that by the Laws of God and of all Nations there is an indispensable obligation upon all children to love and honour their Parents because they brought them into the world now certainly the obligation doubles upon every man in respect to his Father which is in heaven for our natural parents were but second causes under him his own power it was that form'd and created us they engendred our mortal bodies only he is the Father of spirits he himself gave being to our immortal souls Therefore let every man pay to his Maker those duties he would expect from his child If I am a Father saith God where is mine honour Mal. 1.6 If from our heavenly Father we have received our life and being let us pay that respect and love and obedience to him which thereby are become his due But there is yet more in this Creation is not a transient act the same power that once gave us our being doth still exert it self in the continuation thereof When a child is born he subsists by himself his parents need not take aay care that he returns not to his pristine condition but we have the same dependance upon God in our preservation as we had in our creation should he withdraw his Almighty hand we should return to our first nothing in him we live and move and have our being Therefore we are the more bound to serve and love him that he not only made us to be but gives us as it were a new being every moment by continuing our life and durati n by that Almighty will whereby he effected our first production Now if we consider further not onely that God made us but what he made us it will yet inforce those bonds of duty which Creation tied upon us For it was in our Makers power either to make us vile and abject as the vilest of beasts or to deny us those faculties and abilities which are most honourable and most useful to our nature but he made us Men the most wonderful of his creatures in us he joyned what heaven and earth had most excellent an immortal Spirit created after his image with the most elaborated the most perfect of material things Take a view of the marvellous organs of thy senses of the curious contrivance of those joints and ligaments which unite thy several members of those various and delicate channels which

love to men in JESUS so in JESUS men offer the returns of their love to God In this was manifested the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him 1 Joh. 4.9 and in this is manifested our love towards God that we receive and love and obey that Son With this God is in no wise offended but rather infinitely well pleased he that loveth me shall be loved of my father saith our Blessed Saviour Joh. 14.21 If a man love me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him ver 23. and again If any man serve me him will my father honour Joh. 12.26 nay he expresly tells his disciples that the Father loved them because they loved him whom the Father had sent The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me John 16.27 For though we owe our redemption to the infinite mercies of God Father Son and Holy Ghost yet in a more especial manner we are engaged to the Son who personally came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation JESUS is the Author and finisher of our faith he is the Founder of our Holy Religion it is he hath revealed those doctrines we are to believe it is he hath given us those laws and precepts whereby we are to live it is he from whom we are called Christians it is he who for us despised the shame and endured the Cross who hath shed his blood and given his life a ransom for ours it is he who by contracting a near relation with us becoming our brother hath caused us to be adopted Sons of God and heirs with him of an eternal kingdom it is he who can save them to the uttermost that come to God by him it is he who is the head of the Church Caput positum in coelesti●us corpus suum guberna● separatum quidem visione sed annexum charitate Aug. to whom we must be united by Love that we may be his members and derive life from him it is he who is our Lord and Master and will be our judge and our rewarder if we be faithful to him For this end Christ died and rose again that he might be Lord both of the dead and living saith S. Paul Rom. 14.9 God hath made that same JESUS whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ him God hath exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Saviour saith S. Peter Act. 2.36 and 5.31 All power is given him in heaven and earth and he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet Hence the frequent and urgent exhortations to follow and imitate to serve and obey JESUS Hence those pathetick words of S. Paul The love of Christ constraineth us 2 Cor. 5.14 and again what things were gain to me I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of JESUS CHRIST my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ Phil. 3.7 8. 'T is JESUS hath won our hearts to God 't is he hath reconciled us from a state of enmity to a state of love Besides that God was justly angry for our rebellions his glories are so bright so amazing his Divine Majesty so high that to love a being so infinitely above us might have been thought prophaneness or presumption Non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur Majestas amor respect not friendship is the affection of subjects to Princes Φθονερὸ Θεὸς was an ordinary Epithete for the heathen gods who were thought to be envious rather than loving to men and even the Israelites were amazed and terrified at the sight of a heavenly messenger crying we shall die for we have seen God 'T is the great humiliation of JESUS hath procured and established an everlasting reconciliation and friendship betwixt God and man God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinnerr Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 and now there is neither death nor life nor Angels nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God which is in CHRIST JESUS our LORD Rom. 8.39 Therefore for a reward of the great sufferings and abasement of JESUS God hath given him a supreme authority over all the world Men and Angels being made subject unto him because he made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant and humbled himself and became obedi unto death even the death of the Cross therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every thing should bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is the Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.7 8 c. Our love and obedience to JESUS derogates nothing from but belongs to God 'T is to the glory of God the Father God hath highly exalted JESUS for his humiliation and for the same cause we ought also to love and exalt him as much as possibly we can because it was for us not only bow at his name but even kneel and kiss the ground when he only sees us no fear of exceeding here no fear of superstition we can never shew him too much love or respect Psal 72. All Kings shall fall down before him all nations shall do him service prayer shall be made unto him and daily shall he be praised Amen CHAP. XXIII That it is most pleasant and safe to love God A Third consideration will be that it is most pleasant and safe to love God Love may cause trouble but it certainly is the spring or parent of all joy and satisfaction He that hath an affection to nothing hath pleasure in nothing could the imaginary insensibleness of the Stoicks really seize upon any man if he could never be miserable he would also be uncapable of all happiness 'T is true indeed that the love of worldly things in that they are vain and perishing is it self vanity and vexation qui multum amat plus dolet is certainly true of all but the Divine Love He that hath many friends hath many sorrows he that loves many things hath many things to fear for 'T is only God that hath those infinite excellencies which can fully replenish our minds and desires 'T is only God that admits of no variableness neither shadow of turning and therefore 't is the love of God alone that can make us eternally and intirely happy It is reported of a person of great sanctity that an evil spirit confest to him that were it possible for one who loves God to come into hell yet were it impossible he should be miserable but that it would rather sink hell it self and make it